I found ‘Plastic Man’ very strange. It has the wonderful art
of Jack Cole, but a bizarre main character, at least to me. I do, however quite
like that Plastic Man and his sidekick Woozy Winks (what a name!) are reformed
villains, turning around their previous lives of crime. Even with words this
comic is filled with exaggerated motions. With Plastic Man being able to
stretch any part of his body, there are a lot of panel with very scary anatomy.
His super power though keeps the artist from having to worry about proper
proportions too much. Often times some of his stretching seems unnecessary and
he’s just either showing off his rubber abilities or it’s impossible for him to
maintain a regular human structure for too long.
Tintin has a very whimsical style that plays well with the
personalities of the characters. Adventurous and stubborn Tintin, soft but
sassy Snowy, scruffy and usually grumpy Captain Haddock, to the exaggerated
mustache of friendly Professor Calculus. The line work is simple and direct. (Captain
Haddock actually reminds me a bit of Doctor McCoy from Star Trek) The story
flows smoothly through the panels with no confusion and the humor helps keep
the comic light hearted.
Scrooge McDuck keeps the Disney feel with wacky half-dog/human
characters and its classic art style. In ‘Crown of the Mayans’ Scrooge drags
Donald Duck along with his three nephews on a silly adventure through Mayan
ruins in hopes of joining an Archeologist Club. They have to outsmart non-scary
villains hoping to steal the same treasure that Scrooge is after. I wasn’t very
interested in the story aspect while reading, but I do remember enjoying the tv
show ‘Duck Tales’ as a kid.
I felt that the film ‘Chasing Amy’ spent less time focusing
on the comic book making aspect and more on the fact that no one could accept
that Joey Lauren Adams’ character was actually bisexual. I can understand how
being bi was hard to grasp in that time (which wasn’t that long ago at all) but
everyone had this square cutout idea of “this is gay, and this is straight, and
never the twain shall meet.” The movie had a misogynistic overtone until the
very, very end. At which point Ben Affleck’s character stops being an asshole
and uses his experience to create a comic book with personal meaning and
rekindle his passion for the pure art of comics, regardless of payout.
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